1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device driver for operating a device in a plurality of operational modes. More particularly, the present invention concerns a printer driver for a printing system in which system resources are detected and a default printing mode is set based on the detected resources.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional printer drivers provide various printing modes, such as a high-speed, lower-quality mode, and a low-speed, higher-quality mode. Such printer drivers also provide a user with a means to select from the various modes. In this regard, once a user issues a print command, a conventional printer driver causes a printing system to display a printer driver window which lists the available printing modes and allows the user to select therefrom.
Upon initial display of the printer driver window, one of the printing modes is indicated as being selected. The thus-indicated mode is referred to as a default mode, and is determined according to a hard-coded instruction within the printer driver. As such, if a user selects an xe2x80x9cOKxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cPrintxe2x80x9d button on the printer driver window without selecting a printing mode, printing is performed in accordance with the default mode.
In selecting from the available printing modes, a user commonly takes into account factors such as a desired print speed, a desired print quality, and processing capabilities of the printing system. However, some less-sophisticated users simply select the OK or Print button immediately upon display of the printer driver window. Therefore, these users always print using the default printing mode. As a result, printing is often performed in a mode inappropriate to the less-sophisticated user""s needs.
Alternatively, some conventional software applications first determine whether system resources are sufficient to perform an operation in a particular mode, and, if not, perform the operation in a mode different from the particular mode. Although these applications attempt to provide an appropriate operational mode, they do not provide a user with a choice of operational mode, thereby reducing system flexibility.
The present invention addresses the foregoing by providing a system which possesses the advantages of each of the above-described systems. More specifically, the present invention provides a user-modifiable operational mode which is initially set to a default operational mode, the default operational mode being determined based on system resources.
As a result of the foregoing, the default operational mode is more likely to be an appropriate operational mode than that provided by conventional systems. Moreover, the present invention also provides the user with the ability to select an operational mode different from the default mode.
In this regard, the present invention concerns a device driver for use in a computer system, including process steps to detect data corresponding to at least one system resource of the computer system, to determine a default operational mode from a plurality of operational modes of a device based on the data corresponding to at least one system resource, and to provide a user interface for selecting an operational mode from the plurality of operational modes.
In one embodiment, the user interface is a graphical user interface, and the process steps include a receiving step to receive an instruction to display the user interface, and a displaying step to display, in response to the instruction, the user interface having the default operational mode selected. In another embodiment, the at least one detected system resource includes a clock speed of a system central processing unit (CPU) and a size of a system random access memory (RAM).
In yet another embodiment, the data corresponding to the at least one system resource is detected during installation of the device driver and the determining and providing steps are executed during execution of the device driver.
The present invention also concerns process steps of a device driver for use in a computer system, including a detecting step to detect a selection of a new device operational mode different from a default device operational mode, a setting step to set the new device operational mode as a new default device operational mode, a first determining step to determine whether an instruction to restore the default device operational mode has been received, a second determining step to determine, in response to the instruction, a default device operational mode from a plurality of operational modes of a device, and a setting step to set the determined default device operational mode as the default device operational mode.
By virtue of the foregoing aspect of the present invention, a default operational mode adapts in accordance with a user""s interaction with a printer driver. Accordingly, the invention provides the user with flexibility to change a default mode and to maintain the changed default mode during subsequent printing. This aspect of the invention also allows the user to restore a default mode to a mode appropriate to a particular computer system without requiring user knowledge of which mode is most appropriate.
This brief summary has been provided so that the nature of the invention may be understood quickly. A more complete understanding of the invention can be obtained by reference to the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments thereof in connection with the attached drawings.